Pharrel Payne wins battle of bigs as Gophers beat Rutgers

Gophers big man scored game-high 21 points in Minnesota's 81-70 win.

Pharrel Payne wrestled a defensive rebound away from Cliff Omoruyi early in the second half of Sunday night’s game at Williams Arena in Minneapolis.

The play itself wasn’t game changing, although it did lead to a transition bucket for the Gophers men’s basketball team on the other end. But it exemplified the battle between the two talented big men, one Payne ultimately won as the Gophers beat Rutgers 81-70 in front of an announced crowd of 9,680 at The Barn. 

The U snapped Rutgers' four-game winning streak. 

Payne had a game-high 21 points, 11 rebounds and a pair of blocks for the Gophers (16-9, 7-7 Big Ten). He was getting open on the pick-and-roll, crashing the offensive glass and finding his way to the free-throw line with regularity. His presence was felt all night on the Williams Arena court.

"You just see him getting better, getting more confident little by little, each and every day," Gophers coach Ben Johnson said of Payne. "And for him to have a game like that, I thought he was possessed on the glass. I thought he went and got a couple that were like statement rebounds, and those are loud rebounds. That trickles down to everybody else on the floor. They see a guy go up there and get it, there's like an intensity to that. And he left no doubt. 

"And his communication in timeouts, on the floor — if you guys had any idea the biggest strides that kid has taken, phenomenal, so just really proud of him putting together a full game." 

Omoruyi, meanwhile, was effective in his own right for the Scarlet Knights (14-11, 6-8). He matched a team high with 19 points and also recorded eight rebounds, drawing the attention of Payne and the Gophers on the defensive end. He was a spark for an at times stagnant Rutgers offense. Derek Simpson also had 19 for the Scarlet Knights.

The Gophers had five players in all finish in double figures. Elijah Hawkins had 16 points and seven assists, Dawson Garcia tallied 14, Mike Mitchell Jr. recorded 12 and Cam Christie finished with 10 points. 

The Scarlet Knights were ahead by as many as seven points midway through the first half with Omoruyi leading the charge, but the U got several buckets from Payne, and Garcia hit a pair of free throws just before half to knot the game at 37-37.

Both Payne and Omoruyi had 13 points apiece in the opening 20 minutes.

The Gophers’ momentum carried over into the second half as they opened the frame on a 6-0 run. That lead ballooned to as many as 17 as the U kept its foot on the gas.

"I felt like we really took pride in defense in the second half. Just getting key stops and just getting kills, and that really get us going. Defense really determines our offense a lot when we get out in transition and that comes from stops," Hawkins said. 

The Gophers, however, struggled to break the Scarlet Knights’ full-court press late in the game, and Rutgers forced them into turnovers while converting on the other end. The U had 15 turnovers on the night, and the Scarlet Knights were able to cut their deficit to six points with 2 minutes, 11 seconds left in the game.

But Minnesota made its free throws down the stretch, with Garcia splitting a one-and-one, Hawkins drilling four straight and Mitchell also making four in a row as the U kept Rutgers at an arm’s distance, making sure not to let another late lead slip away.